Move by Rosabeth Moss Canter

The major elements of America’s transportation infrastructure and policy frameworks are six decades old (or older in the case rail). We haven’t even kept up with the maintenance since then. In addition to taking care of what we have, we need to adapt to the changes in technology, culture and the economy that have occurred. Our policies haven’t been keeping up.

In Move, Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter explores how we got here and how we can move forward. We got here by adopting a defense-oriented policy that emphasized cars (especially interstate highways) and air travel, largely ignoring rail, public transit and intermodal development.

The path forward has several elements. First is a focus on mobility. Transportation infrastructure is a technical, bureaucratic realm of deep silos. Mobility changes the focus to moving people and products around communities and the nation in whatever ways make sense. Physical mobility and economic mobility are tied, and if we want to strengthen our economic leadership on the world stage, we need to break down internal policy barriers to advancing the way people move.

That means developing a national strategy. Of course, a rigid approach won’t work because we have varied nation. However, national priorities and frameworks can make room for regional priorities, adaption and leadership.

Money is always in issue. There are potentials in public-private partnership (PPP), and that can be arranged in many ways. America has a world-leading freight rail system that has very limited public investment. Airports are generally owned by governments, and attempts to privatize them have meet a cool response from possible investors. However, there are examples of successful PPPs in which there is something for everybody.

I already mentioned that technology has come a long way in the past several decades, especially in the realm of communication and data analysis. Some transportation industries, such as airlines, are taking advantage of the opportunities in new technology, while other are lagging. There are many ways our transportation system can be smarter, and we need sensible ways of incorporating technology in ways that are safe without losing out on the benefits through unnecessary delays.

This requires leadership and vision, especially in government. Politicians are often motivated by short-term wins, but mobility is a long-term investment. We need leaders who can see passed the next election and the boundaries of party.

Finally, citizen engagement is important. Plans can quickly fail if the people who are going to use, pay for and otherwise feel the ultimate effects of new transportation policies and infrastructure are not informed, involved and empowered to take action that works for them.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Big Roads by Earl Swift

Bottled Lightning by Seth Fletcher

1939 by David Gelernter

The Powerhouse by Steve Levine

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. Move: Putting America’s Infrastructure Back in the Lead. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

Notes on Collecting

I suspect many readers of this blog are interested collecting books.  I’ve decide to share my thoughts on collecting through a series of essays.  I hope you find it interesting and useful.

I think of their being two types of collectors, which I refer to as enthusiasts and investors.  As the name implies, an enthusiast collects base on his interests.  An investor collects based on the value of the items collected.

I suspect most collectors are enthusiasts.  They started collecting books or other objects because of their interest in them.  Enthusiast collectors run from casual to serious.  Some enthusiasts can become experts in their field.

Investors are interested in items for their value.  Like investors in anything else, they may you can distinguish between traders and buy-and-hold investors.  Traders usually don’t hold onto an item for long.  They are looking for the book, comic, or other collectable that is undervalued (i.e., on sale for a dollar at the thrift store) that they can quickly resell for a better price in another market, hopefully hitting it big occasionally.  A successful trader must know the value of his collectables and have access to retail buyers so he can recognize a bargain and quickly turn a profit.  Buy-and-hold investors take a longer view, believing that their collectables will grow in value over the course of years, or at least hold their value against inflation.  It helps to recognize a bargain, but it is more helpful to distinguish lasting quality from trends that will crash.

Of course, all of these things can overlap.  An enthusiast may put together a collection that eventually becomes very valuable.  His expertise can make him an excellent buy-and-hold investor.  A trader may fall in love with a few interesting pieces that she keeps for her own enjoyment.  Any collector might find opportunities to help a fellow collector and make a few bucks while they’re at it because they’ve developed some knowledge of what other people want and what it is worth to them.

I encourage you to think about your primary motivation for collecting.  Are you an enthusiast?  Do you have a casual interest or a near obsession?  Are you interested in collectables as investment?  Do you want to trade to make some income or are you looking to park you money in something that will grow in value?  Answering these questions for yourself will help you to make better decisions about your collection.

What's New March 20, 2009

Celebrate the Little Things
Federal Housing and Transportation Agencies Team Up
House Passes Water Quality Investment Act of 2009
Let's Bank On Rebuilding America
My Googleganger strikes: Commenting on photo flipbooks
Nominations for Federal Environmental and Infrastructure Posts Announced
Progress ReportStimulus Funds Making Their Way to Drinking Water and Wastewater Projects
Stimulus Funds Making Their Way to Transportation Projects
Stories for a Man’s Heart by Al and Alice Gray
U.S. Transportation Dept. Releases Budget Framework
What's New March 5, 2009
Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Stephen Post and Jill Neimark

What’s New

aboutkeenan - Keenan Patterson Blogs
aboutkeenan - Keenan Patterson Short stories
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber
The Big Necessity by Rose George
The Big Necessity by Rose George (Infrastructure Watch)
Hydraulic Fracturing May End
President-elect Calls for Infrastructure Investment
Public Speaker Columbia, Public Speakers Columbia, Professional ...
The Thin Man
What’s New Nov. 28, 2008

What I Read (5)

Date: September 6, 2005
Title: Fortune’s Formula Author: William Poundstone
Thoughts: I can see how the Kelly criteria might help one allocate assets for investment. However, it seems to require computing and special knowledge that an individual is unlikely to have access to. It is a game for fund managers.

Date: September 16, 2005
Title: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind Author: T. Harv Eker
Thoughts: I will have a net worth of $1 million by October 2, 2008. (Unfortunately, this did not come to pass.)

Quotes to remember:

“Simple pictures are best,” the photographer in Simple Pictures Are Best by Nancy Willard.

“The man who gets married has the daring of Jesse James, the courage of a wounded rhinoceros and a disposition to gamble besides which the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo was a poor-spirited piker,” Dorothy Carnegie in Don’t Grow Old—Grow Up!
Date: September 20, 2005
Title: The One Minute Millionaire
Author: Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen
Thoughts: I will be squeaky-clean, rose-scented rich.

Date: September 22, 2005
Title: Are You Dumb Enough to be Rich? Author: G. William Barnett II
Thoughts: There are two things in this book I could put to work quickly. Plus, I’m going to be squeaky-clean, rose-scented rich. Woo-hoo.

Date: October 14, 2005
Title: University of Success
Editor: Og Mandino
Thoughts: I wish I had been put through a course like this again and again in youth. Now I not only need to learn the good lessons, but unlearn the many bad lessons. Thank God, I can make a start now.

Date: October 27, 2005
Title: The Ancient Engineers
Author: L. Sprague de Camp
Thoughts: The author is so opposed to religion he refuses to even use the conventional A.D. and B.C. on his dates, though they are otherwise from the Gregorian calendar. Otherwise, I enjoyed it. Much like Hill and Landels.

Other parts of What I Read:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Interesting Stuff May 1, 2009

A Little Microlending Goes A Long Way
Aging of Water Mains Is Becoming Hard to Ignore
Biofuel from algae
Corps of Engineers Unleashes FART (An April Fools post, so out of date in that sense, but still funny.)
Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dies At 61
Empire State Building Plans Environmental Retrofit
Interesting Stuff Feb. 25, 2008
The New TV Remote: Your Bare Hand?
Recession slowing water investment to a drip
Say It Ain't So, Bill! USGS Will Use 'Groundwater' as One Word
Secret Message in Lincoln Watch Found
Spelling 'Groundwater' - Historical Note
This is awful: 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India
World's Rivers Losing Their Flow

Public Utility Depreciation by NARUC

I don’t usually read reference books, or textbooks, all the way through like I did with Public Utility Depreciation Practices. Because of my new job as a “depreciation engineer,” I undertook reading this guide from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

The title describes the content of the book. It includes some historical and legal background, but the bulk of the book is aimed at the practicalities of determining depreciation expenses.

The main elements going into depreciation rate determination are depreciation base, service life, net salvage, and depreciation computation methods. Depreciation base is the starting point; it represents the initial investment of capital that is to be recovered as a cost through depreciation. Generally it is the book cost (original cost of the infrastructure including materials, equipment, labor and related costs).

Most methods of computing depreciation are referred to as age-life methods. These methods spread the cost of the expected life of a piece of infrastructure. The preferred method is straight line depreciation. To apply these methods, one will need to know or estimate the life of the infrastructure under consideration and the net salvage value. The depreciation rate is the difference between the base and the net salvage, divided by the life of the infrastructure. With the exception of unique pieces, like types of infrastructure are lumped together because they are expected to have a similar life (wooden poles, steel poles, copper wire, conduit, etc.).

Life expectancy can be estimated by several methods. Survivor curves are developed from statistical studies of the life of particular types of infrastructure, though other methods may be used depending on the type and quality of data available.

Net salvage is estimated based on experience. The gross salvage is the price received for the equipment or materials retired. The cost of removal is subtracted from this to calculate the net salvage. Sometimes it can cost more to remove infrastructure than the value of the retired equipment and materials, so net salvage can be negative.

Calculating depreciation is more art than science. Projections of future values are inherently tricky. Growth can cause infrastructure to become inadequate before it is expected, or slower than expected growth can extend the life infrastructure. New regulations can make infrastructure obsolete in an instant, as can new technologies. In addition, utilities are constantly adding and retiring infrastructure. Amidst this uncertainty, regulators must balance the level of service needed by utility customers with the returns needed by utility investors in a complex environment.

Admittedly, a book from 1968 may seem dated. However, many of the practices described are still in use. Government regulation of monopoly utility rates in the United States has been occurring for more than a century, and the practices to not change rapidly. Even so, some of the practices described were considered obsolete, or near obsolescence, at the time of publication, and are not likely to be encountered now unless you’re a financial historian combing through moldy account books.

National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Public Utility Depreciation Practices. 1968. Washington, DC: Author, 1974.

The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman

More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.  Australia has suffered a decade-long, continent-wide drought.  Even seemingly water rich places, like Atlanta, Georgia, can’t get enough water.  Many are talking of a global water crisis.  Except, as Charles Fishman aptly states it in The Big Thirst, “There is no global water crisis, there are a thousand water crises, each distinct.”

I think the story of Atlanta and Lake Lanier, as told recounted by Fishman, is especially instructive.  Lake Lanier on the Chatahoochee River is the source of 75 percent of the water used by Atlanta, 5 million gallons a day.  A drought in 2007-2008 brought the level of the lake dangerously low, prompting downstream states to sue over the amount of water Atlanta was taking.  The federal court declared that Atlanta had been illegally receiving water from the lake and had to find another source.  Atlanta has a lot of resources, barely tapped conservation efforts, reuse, and alternative supplies, but with a lack of political will, leadership, and vision, it leaders threw up their hands in impotent defiance of the court and whined they must have Lake Lanier water.  When the lake was built, Atlanta passed on paying for a piece of it thinking it would never be needed, and now they think they can’t live without it.

Part of the point Fishman makes it that water crises are more often than not political crises.  There is a lack of political will and sense of necessity, even though the problems can be plain and the solutions within reach.  The Big Thirst includes examples from around the world (the United States, India, and especially Australia) where people are facing water problems.  Happily, many of them have taken a more realistic and reasonable approach than Atlanta.

Fishman is going for something deeper, though.  Our political and economic stumbling in the area of water management stems for our cultural relationship with water.  It is obviously necessary for life.  We also consider it beautiful, it is part of our landscape, and in some places it has important religious significance.  Even so, we have difficulty understanding the value of water, comparing one use to another, assigning responsibility for its distribution and quality, acknowledging the infrastructure needed to have water when and where it is needed.  It the West, where for the last century we have enjoyed incredible access to abundant water, we hardly ever think about water unless we have some professional connection to it.

We can’t continue to be mindless of water.  The systems of water abundance we built in the last century aren’t sustainable without major ongoing investment.  In light of climate change, they may be altogether unsustainable.  Even without climate change, much of our water policy dates to a time of unusual water abundance.

Fishman encourages water mindfulness.  We need to reconnect to water.  In part, this reconnecting means understanding what it means to have water in our homes and in our streams.  It is also connecting to how critical water is to food, energy, commerce, health, and almost every aspect of life.  Our decisions about water need to be rooted in reality.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Elixir by Brian Fagan

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

I’ve also written about Atlanta and Lake Lanier at Infrastructure Watch:

Courts Could Affect Uses of Lake Lanier

Georgia Appeals Lake Lanier Decision

Georgia Loses Lake Lanier Battle

Judge Winnows Down Central Question in Lake Lanier Case

Fishman, Charles.  The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.  New York: Free Press, 2011.

Google

What's New Jan. 19, 2009

Air Pollution News
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Book Review: One Small Thing Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
Civil Engineering Organization Calls for Members to Weigh In on Economic Stimulus Package
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Drinking Water Investment Could Create 400,000 Jobs
Environmental Protection Agency Accepting Comments on Total Maximum Daily Load Handbook
Environmental Protection Agency Calls for More Stringent Standards on Mississippi River
Glossary (Updated)
Interesting Stuff Jan. 8, 2009
“Introduction to Asset Management” to be Presented in March
Weight Loss Links (Updated)
What’s New Jan. 6, 2009

Interesting Stuff

A Conservative Investment
EPA's Air Pollution Target: Flatulent Cows
Interesting Stuff Nov. 28, 2008
Muscle Cars Meet Green Technology
My True Love Gave To Me … A Bat Species!
Scotland Promotes Whiskey as a Weapon Against Polluted Water
Should we recycle urine on earth, too?
Urine Recycler Running at Space Station

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner look into the unexpected relationships between aspects of our society in their book Freakonomics. They not particularly interested in the things you might expect economists to write about such as business, markets or investment. Instead, they look at cheating, crime, expertise and parenting.

There is no particular theme of the book, except possibly that common explanations and expectations are often off the mark. Levitt and Dubner are skeptical of conventional wisdom and expertise. They are interested in data and what questions can properly be put to that data.

They sometimes come to conclusions that some might find disturbing or troubling. For instance, they trace the drop in crime rates in the 1990s to the legalization of abortion in the 1970s. Many of the women who had abortions in the wake of Roe vs. Wade were poor, had low education, or very young. All of these traits in the parents tend to produce worse outcomes for children, including a higher likelihood of committing crime. As the first post-Roe cohort of children reached their teen years in the 1990s, there were fewer who had been raised in those conditions that may have pushed them into crime, and therefore fewer budding criminals and a decline in crime rates.

Reading this made me think of the arguments of eugenicists. They believed that a host of social ills, including crime, could be mitigated by keeping the unfit people from reproducing. To the eugenicists, unfit was essentially equivalent to nonwhite, though it also extended to the feebleminded (a disease a eugenically-minded psychiatrist or psychologist might have found in any poor, uneducated person). The eugenicists saw intelligence, criminality, poverty and host of other features as fixed and hereditary. Limiting the reproduction of the unfit through abortion or sterilization would reduce and eventually eliminate poverty and crime.

Of course, Levitt and Dubner are not eugenicists. Nor do they propose abortion as means to reduce crime. Crime does not have its roots in race or intelligence. It is strongly tied to poverty and low education. Charles Dickens chilling portrayed Ignorance and Want in A Christmas Carol, and they are still a threat to all of us.

Each chapter reveals an interesting twist on some subject, though few are as potentially charged as that on crime. In another chapter, the authors show that crime does not pay, except for those at the top, on unlike in a corporation. In spite of faddish thoughts on the issue, parents matter, though maybe not in the ways we’d like to think.

My previous reading has inclined me to focus on the darkest part of the book, but the overall tone is conversational and light, though the authors are not flippant about serous subjects. They are not technical either. Their use of statistics is straightforward. They do not delve deep into theory, though they focus much on the central theory of economics that people respond to incentives.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Better for All the World by Harry Bruinius

The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow

How We Got Here by Andy Kessler

The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland & Andrew Dilnot

The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull

War Against the Weak by Edwin Black

Levitt, Steven D., & Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: William Morrow, 2005.